Headhunter facing fines in Motorola firing suit

The judge overseeing former Motorola Inc. Chief Financial Officer Paul Liska's retaliatory-discharge lawsuit against the Schaumburg-based company is giving a local headhunter seven days to produce documents potentially relevant to the case.

Gregory Crecos, founder of executive search firm Gregory Michaels & Associates, was subpoenaed earlier this year but has been fighting the subpoena in what has become a sideshow to the main case. Crecos is representing himself in court.

Crecos had worked with Liska and Motorola in the past. The company is seeking documents related to, among other matters, communication among Crecos, Liska and Motorola since the beginning of 2008.

In August, Cook County Judge Allen Goldberg got both sides to agree to a forensic investigation of Crecos' computers. The forensic investigation, conducted this month, went awry, and Motorola's lawyers asked the court to find Crecos in contempt.

At a Tuesday hearing, Crecos said lawyers Christopher Barber and Elizabeth Johnson of Steptoe & Johnson and forensics experts from Huron Consulting Group disrupted his workday and violated the August court order by digging up computer files dating to 2001.

Motorola's lawyers said Crecos was uncooperative and allowed access to only two of nine PCs in his office. One forensics expert from Huron Consulting testified that the investigation required collecting all data on a hard drive before filtering out the relevant documents from 2008 to the present.

On Tuesday, Goldberg said he will give Crecos seven days to comply with his August order and allow the Huron Consulting forensics team back into his office to gather the electronic files or face a fine of $1,000 per day for each day of non-compliance. The order goes into effect Wednesday.

Liska was terminated for cause in February and sued Motorola that month, saying he was fired for refusing to accept misleading financial forecasts by the company's mobile phone division.

Motorola has accused Liska of plotting "an extortion-like scheme" against the company after finding out he was to be replaced for poor performance.